Do 50yr old women ache more than 50yr old men?

[Wearygirl]

I'm on a sight seeing 4 day trip with hubby. Been non stop long days, on feet, walking, standing.

We are both overweight but not disabling overweight

I swim, cycle and gym 5-6x a week and have done for years and years (alas I also eat a lot! Lol)
Hubby plays golf once a week and does no other exercise.

At end of this trip I am absolutely exhausted! Legs screaming walking uphill and steps. My lower back aches. My knees ache. I'm absolutely wiped out.

Husband is 'a bit tired' and has 'slightly achey feet but ok really '

!!!

Is it just me?
Is it another bloody menopause thing?
Is it another man/woman thing?

I think it's
a) menopause
b) if you've had children your body is always somewhat damaged, from bearing them, and carrying them around.

I'm 56, slim and reasonably active |(have a dog and an allotment) and I wake aching, and by the end of the day I'm in pain. It sucks and I can only put it down to menopause and having too many kids!

Also, women get more autoimmune conditions, they can be painful like fibromyalgia

Im going against the grain here, I dont think so

59 and for the past 18 years had very physical jobs, DH is 62, also in a physical job, I work more paid hours then him

He is always complaining, this hurts, that hurts, I may say after a particularly hard day my back hurts. He pops pills, I rarely need a painkiller. I will also walk a couple of miles a day on top of the steps already put in , he says he works hard enough he doesnt need to do more

His job is heavier and more physical I admit, I couldnt do it, but my job is also very physical, lot of weight, lot of steps ( Im a waitress hes a handyman ) but I always find a bit more in me to do a bit more where as hes home, shower and nightclothes

I've been in pain for 23 years since the birth of my second child, I still have aching muscles everywhere and if I stand for long periods my body hurts. I can walk for long distances with no problem though.
Dh has never had this pain he has a bad back which flares every now and then but not this body muscular pain especially in my upper back and neck and shoulders. No idea what it is I just get in with my life.

A lot of my women friends have this sort of pain, I don't know any man who does.

Probably. But men moan a lot more about theirs!

I'm 54. My joints ache for most of the day. Walking downstairs hurts. So does turning my head or bending my elbows. Getting up from a seat is painful. Walking is usually ok.

My dh doesn't experience anything like this.

I'm 55 and unless I've had a really unusually physical day I don't suffer aches and pains, walking around wouldn't be an issue, digging over all the allotment in one day would. Partner would be aching after a full days sightseeing

Get yourselves some decent quality fish oil capsules and take them three times a day with meals. There really is no need to suffer like this.

He walks round a golf course once a week. Depending on what you do in the gym- maybe you're just not to being on your feet and walking as much.

Depends a lot on individuals, though.

I wonder if taking a few rest days before the trip would have helped you, that's a lot of exercise and maybe he was just "fresher" because he doesn't work out. Also, were your shoes equally comfortable?

Men don't have to deal with the same level of hormonal changes as women in their fifties. The loss of estrogen affects joints, tendons, etc.

Whether or not you are on HRT, fish oil really does make a difference to this sort of stiffness and aching.

My husband is 67;. He climbed Mount Everest when 64,he sails his boat when he can . I am 60 and walked 9000 today and ate cake..everyone is different.🤷‍♀️

My guess is that it's about even. I find they come & go for no apparent reason🤷🏻‍♀

This

I havent done Everest, but I done our highest peak where as DH would be dead on his feet the first mile

We use different muscles in our different jobs, hes doing a lot more weight where as Im doing a lot more cardio . I eat cake and it settles on my hips,he eats cake and there is not a pick on him

Sure we both ache at the end of the day but to what extent and no one can measure anyone elses pain. My 10 could be his 5

I ended up in A&E in severe pain last year, to me is was a 20 on a scale to 1 -10. I was so apologetic,I don't want to waste precious resources , but the doctor who saw me said, there's no level playing field with pain and my 10 isnt the same as another's 10 and I should certainly be looking for medical help if I reached my 10

At age 50, I found walking very painful in the ligaments and tendons a lot of the time. A few years later and I seem to have mostly grown through it, thankfully. Now, I am just unfit.

who cn possibly answer that? Noone has ever been both, to compare!

but have you worn high heels much in the past? They damaged muscles and tendons etc

It really depends but it sounds like you might not be used to what you've been doing, ie lots of walking instead of the gym.

We're also 50 somethings who've just come back from a week's hiking holiday in the Spanish mountains so around 15 to 20k steps a day on very steep terrain and a few days were quite hot.

I felt a bit tired and achy but not massively so, so like your DH, not what you describe. Remember that golf is walking a few miles carrying a heavy bag, so he could be more used to walking around than you.

I think sometimes people can overestimate the effect of an hour in the gym compared with general ongoing daily activity for hours at a time.

I'm 43, slim and exercise every day but I cannot stand or walk for long periods of time. And it's getting worse. Even if I have to stand in a queue for a while I can feel my hips and back start to scream at me.

I’m 49 and hopefully this isn’t true! I was on holiday in Easter for two weeks and did lots of walking. I hope I’m not going to ache in a year. Maybe in 5 years?

I think for a lot of women it is to do with the loss of oestrogen as we age. I found HRT, improved diet and exercise has stopped me aching. Only mid 40s though so some way to go.

If you're not used to spending hours on your feet walking around then the change in routine will be a contributing factor, no matter how fit otherwise you are.

Dropping oestrogen levels don't help either.

My hips and knees ached terribly on holiday last year - took me a while to work out why. I didn’t take any of my supplements or collagen with me due to space and my goodness the difference was ridiculous!
Got back home and within 48 hours of being back on them, all pain gone. Take collagen powder, cod liver oil, glucosamine, co enzyme q10 and maca. Going away in a few weeks to Florence and EVERYTHING is coming with me!!

I’m a chiropractor and also a woman in my 50’s.
I think that women our age do ache more than men. There may be a bias n that middle aged women are more likely to see me than middle aged men, I’m not sure about this and it may be an interesting audit. But my experience is that women tend to present with aches and pains everywhere and men tend to present with acute onset pain in one region.
Carrying extra weight doesn’t help, not because of stress on joints but because fat cells tend to cause low level systemic inflammation which is painful.
Drop in oestrogen is also a cause.
Stress and a sedentary lifestyle are also contributing factors.

It's dependant on a few things - muscle mass is easy to loose if you don't use but women do also have to worry about osteoperosis more than men post menopause. Women need to be on HRT if possible to stop that getting worse once it starts. Also if you have had children your body/hips may have suffered trauma from pregnancy - compressed disks and stress on various parts. Joints can loose fluidity if you aren't eating good fats - avocado and real butter over margarine.

Your husband will be standing using his core in golf, even though it isn't a hugely energetic game. Personally as a woman I can't stand for long periods of time as I feel dizzy and my shoulders and hips ache - walking I can do for miles and miles; motion is key for me at least.

Joints have oestrogen receptors around them, I believe, so a lack of oestrogen will certainly affect them. I permanently ache and I'm 50.